Do you like rusty images ? If yes then you are going to love this tutorial. Now,how does a object look when it gets rusted ? Do you want to know how does it look then see this tutorial and apply it on every image. I’m going to share the tutorial so that you can visualize an object in rusted state, that is brownish look. The tutorial also teaches you the uses various filters. This tutorial works fine with adobe photoshop CS4 and newer versions. :)

Develop rusted images

  1. Open the image which you want make as rusty image with photoshop. I’m using the car image standing in front of the bungalow, as shown in the below screen shot.

  2. To proceed further we have to make a texture, for that create a new layer and name it as whatever you want. I’m choosing the name as metal which looks better for rusted image. :)

  3. Now to create the texture you have fill the layer with 50% gray. You can fill the layer by going to menu bar and then to edit and click fill.

  4. Now add noise to the layer by navigating to filter and then noise and then add noise. You can choose the amount of noise in the window, as shown in the below image.

  5. Then blur the image using motion blur option by going to filter in the menu bar and then select blur and then motion blur. You can select the angle and the distance depending upon your requirement.

  6. By completing the above step you have successfully developed on texture needed for developing the rusted image. Now you have to create another texture, lets name it as rust and create a new layer by naming it as rust, by going to layer and then new layer.

  7. Now You have to fill this layer also, for that goto edit and then fill. Now choose the color which you want be painted as rusted image. I chose orange, as we see rusted object mostly in orange color. Though you can try with other colors, as shown in the below image.

  8. Now we have to select the sand color texture to this layer. For completing the step goto filter then texture and then select Texturizer and adjust the values so that the color looks rusty, as shown below image.

  9. Now we have to apply mask for rust and metal layer by going to layer in the menu bar and then add layer mask and then click reveal all. As shown in the below image,

  10. Now open the image menu and then click on apply image and check the invert checkbox, which is beside channel drop down menu. As shown in the below image,

  11. Now we get the rough image which looks like a rusty image of the actual image, now to make it a finish product we have to adjust brightness and contrast of the image. For doing this goto Image in the menu bar and then adjustments and then click on Brightness/Contrast. You can tick the Use legacy checkbox, so that it makes your work more easier.

  12. Now goto filter and select Distort in the glass filter. Here create the amount of distortion you need, it changes from person to person as per there requirements.

  13. After the above step the image should look something as shown below,

  14. Now, we have to make it more furnished so that it looks like professional work. To do it we have use lighting filter which can be found in the filter from the menu bar. Activate the rust layer, that is the third layer we created. Now goto filter and select render layer with lighting. The values which are shown below are not absolute, you can change it depending upon your requirement. As shown in the below image,

  15. To make your image stronger, select red as your texture and adjust the height as per your requirement. For lighting tool goto filter in the menu bar and then click on render and then select lighting. To get perfect result you have play around with these settings, as your image might be different.

  16. You should apply the same settings for the metal layer, that is second layer we created and it should be contrasting with the rust layer, that if you selected -100 for rust layer then select +100 for this layer.

And then after the amount of hard work we did to develop the image we get our result, as shown in the below image,

I’ve once tried with bluish color and then I was surprised to see the result, you can also surprise yourself by playing around with tools and the color box of adobe photo shop… Have fun :)